This summer’s mecha vs. monsters action adventure Pacific Rim is out in Blu-ray and DVD today, in the wake of its modest $407 million worldwide box office gross, and many fans of the movie are very interested in getting an answer to the question of whether it will be the beginning of a new franchise, or will remain a one-hit wonder of destroyed buildings and giant monsters.

Without knowing exact details of Pacific Rim‘s marketing budget, it’s difficult to ascertain whether the movie made much money or simply broke even, though the fact that Legendary Pictures has yet to greenlight a sequel suggests that it didn’t draw in huge profits for the production company.

Nonetheless, when IGN asked director Guillermo Del Toro about Pacific Rim‘s box office performance in a recent interview, he said that he was proud of what the film achieved, considering it was one of the few summer blockbusters that wasn’t based on an existing IP:

“I’m very happy. Out of the top 10 titles of the summer, we were perhaps the one that was not dependent on a star name or a pre-established property, and I think that’s really, really good. The passion with people that saw the movie and raved about it was great.

“What was troubling was that we didn’t achieve — and the tracking was clear — we were not being exposed beyond the core. The core was reacting to the movie, but people on the street were not hearing about it in the right way. I cannot decipher that because that’s exactly what the numbers indicated. It’s sort of a head-scratcher, but when we opened we were in very low awareness, which means we were not being rejected or accepted. That was not the issue. The issue was we were not on the radar.”

This certainly seems to reflect what we’ve heard from readers when the subject of promotion for Pacific Rim has come up in the past. Fans of kaiju movies, science fiction and Del Toro’s previous work were aware of Pacific Rim from quite early on, but the excitement didn’t seem to reach casual moviegoers nearly as well.

Screenwriter Travis Beacham has already penned a graphic novel prequel to Pacific Rim titled “Tales from Year Zero,” but Del Toro says that he and Beacham aren’t quite done with the universe yet.

“We are writing the sequel. Travis Beacham and I are writing, so that is active. The decision to green light or not, that’s definitely above my pay rate.

“To me, what was beautiful and flattering was how people saw the movie not once or twice but three, four times or more. People that love it, love it with great passion. So I would love to continue telling stories about that world.”

Earlier this year we argued that the story of Pacific Rim was self-contained enough that it didn’t necessarily need a sequel, but that’s not to say that a sequel wouldn’t be entirely unwelcome. There’s a significant difference between a studio ordering another movie for the sake of squeezing more money from the franchise and the original filmmakers pushing for a sequel because they have more story to tell. To put it another way, we’re good at acting cool about a potential Pacific Rim sequel when it hasn’t been written yet, but now that there’s a script in progress it’s hard to resist the lure.

The concept certainly isn’t lacking potential for further stories, as another Pacific Rim movie could either go back and explore the earlier years of the war against the Kaiju, or alternatively could show the humans going on the offensive and taking a trip through the rift to see more of what’s on the other side. Charlie Day has previously mentioned that Del Toro wanted to make his character, Newt, a villain in the sequel, which could be an interesting way to progress Newt’s fanboy obsession with the Kaiju.

Of course, all this will only be possible if a Pacific Rim sequel gets greenlit, and even then Legendary Pictures would need to find a way to generate interest in the franchise outside of its core of sci-fi and action movie fans. Tell us where you think the marketing went wrong the first time around – or if Pacific Rim‘s problems lay elsewhere – in the comments.

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guessi 1 year ago

It had tons of troubles but it was enterntaining because of battles. Not bad, but i am waiting more from sequel if Del Toro wants it to roll good. Transformers were popular because of boobs, damn, i thought everyone heard of porn, but it appears that some kids didn’t. Without such low showings we need stronger story, acting, dialogs.

The movie sucked…………………It lost me when the supposed “old expert” (Hunam) during the first battle he had after returning, turned to the girl and said I guess we are finished (the monster has destroyed our robot) and she responds with “not yet” and out of no where comes a sword!!!!!! WTF!! wouldn’t you have been using this tool right away??

Although I don’t think it was that bad I do think for them to be successful they need a more thoughtout script/storyline. PR was nice to look at but as a whole, the overall story had it’s issues. The story had many plotholes. I do agree about the sword and was kind of funny because a lot of people at the theatre was actually saying the same thing. I love Del Toro but he really should let other people who are more qualified write the script/story.

It’s true that the movie was sort of off the radar for most people. They have to work on getting more buzz for the sequel because it was a awesome action flick that definately deserves a sequel(more so that the transformers movies for example).

Of all the things I love seeing, giant robots vs giant monsters would be high on the list, but the movie just didn’t do it for me… but it wasn’t a “bad” movie by any means – just not exactly “special” imo.

The thing is that nothing really stood out for me. It took me a while to realize why I didn’t care much for the flick, and in the end I think it’s just because there wasn’t anything “new”. It was like a mash up of moments I’ve seen throughout various other movies, shows and anime. The actors were great, but the action hardly had any suspense and most of the jokes fell flat.

So, I’m indifferent to a Pacific Rim sequel. If it gets made, good for Guillermo. If it doesn’t, I couldn’t care less.

I love it when seeing that their movie didn’t smash box office records, they use the tried and true “didn’t get enough press,” excuse, or whatever.
Maybe it’s because, despite the entertaining, though barely-lit battles, the story, mechanology and many basic facets of the story made little or no logical sense. Maybe it’s because some people realized this when they saw it, and passed that message along.
Here’s a hint. Put more effort into the writing, let us see what the he–s going on in the battles, and stop making excuses. By the way, the movie needs no sequel. Do that, and you may as well shoot for a Gone With The Wind 3.

The movie wasn’t a hit because the idea of seeing a giant robots vs monsters movie isn’t for the mainsteam audience. The movie would have to generate a lot of word of mouth to interest the non-fanboy crowd

So robots fighting other robots is a mainstream idea but robots fighting monsters isn’t? Monsters vs aliens was a disappointment but aliens was a hit. Aliens vs. predator was only modestly successful, but you could say that the aliens are kinda like monsters in that movie. In Freddy vs. Jason they’re both monsters. Cloverfield is a monster but according to the title he isn’t vs. anything. That movie was a huge hit. So what I’m learning is that a monster on it’s own or vs. other monsters will be a huge hit and a monster vs. anything else will either be unsuccessful of modestly successful. So Godzilla should be fine. Superman’s a monster for killing Zod and Batman kinda dresses like a monster (clutching at straws here) so that should do even better than expected due to the extra monster on monster box office bump. It’s just science.

You missed a guy in man-sized robot suit, Norse god with a hammer, thawed out WW II super solider, irradiated green giant, guy with a bow and arrow and a Russian gymnast/dominatrix versus aliens. That is platinum right there…..

@Slayer. Yeah I forgot about that. So age of ultron is now guaranteed to be bigger based on the simple science that Robots beat Aliens. Now all it needs is a little man vs. smurf and boat vs. iceberg action (with some dinosaurs and wizardry thrown in for good measure).

I absolutely loved this movie and it is definitely worthy of a sequel. What they will do with the sequel is anyone’s guess right now, but I seriously hope there will be more of Newton and Hermann in it, and possibly Newt turning evil (that would be insanely hot just saying :P)

The background stories for some of the characters was great (hint hint towards Mako here) and the way the Kaijus were designed and animated is simply fantastic!!

I understand how the Monster vs Robots thing isn’t appealing towards the mainstream audiences, no one of my group of friends even wanted to hear about it, not until I dragged them to see it with me, and they even told me how grateful they were for me taking them!!!

I seriously hope that the next movie will not take too long, I’m itching for a follow up!!!

I loved Pacific Rim,as a anime/manga/giant monster,giant robot fan,this was everything I ever hoped for from a big American/Hollywood movie doing their version of some of the cool Japanese science-fiction movies of the last few decades and if Guillermo Del Toro and crew ever decide to make a sequel that would be cool,but if not then we still have this epic movie to enjoy for years to come, so either way I’m happy.

Moviegoers are weird, i saw this movie twice and it makes gravity look like crap yet people
pouring all kinds of love on it like it was the birth of coke cola. If rim had a bigger name actor iam
Sure it sees another 193 million dollars more.

I loved this movie and saw it three times, once in IMAX and one in 3D, and finally regular viewing. I took someone new each time to watch their reaction, and each person wanted to see more. I agree that the CORE fans got it, but the average movie goer just couldn’t get lost in a world of giant monsters fighting giant machines. I would love to see a sequel where Charlie Day plays a villain because he mind/ telegraphed with the Kaijui’s. What if part of Gypsy Danger remained after the blast and the Kaijui’s used that to bred their half monster/ half machine and released it on us? The possibilities are endless for this universe. Please make a sequel.